Do you pass any electrical power transmission on your way home from work? The odd-shaped insulator that separate the electricity carrying metal wires carrying the electricity from each other and from the tall metal or wood towers are ceramic. And ceramics are required in many ways during the generation of electricity, whether the plant is powered by coal nuclear energy, hydroelectric power, gas turbines, or even wind. the importance of ceramics now, and this increasing importance in the future, to energy production and pollution reduction are described in Chapter 12.